Idon’t
know whether it’s because I’m a terminal optimist, or maybe
just because it’s finally stopped raining, but things seem a little
better in photojournalism land. The posts on EP are slightly more cheerful,
and I’ve even had several calls from photographers telling me
that Corbis is making money for them. They communicate this news in
a combination of excitement, relief and resentment and confusion. Excitement
and relief because they need the money, and resentment and confusion
because in a way the idea of Corbis being successful for them takes
away one of the core beliefs upon which they have come to rely. It’s
a bit like finding out that Hilary Clinton is a really nice person.

The other cause for this feeling (which to put it in
perspective is more an absence of despair than actual euphoria) is the
sudden appearance of several new agencies at a time when many established
ones are struggling for survival. There still seem to be a number of
foolhardy souls whose irrepressibly entrepreneurial instincts tell them
that this might be a good time to invest time, talent and money in new
photoventures, despite the common wisdom (an oxymoron if ever there
was one) that this is the worst of times. Furthermore these are not
newbies to the biz, but people who’ve been around a while, and
therefore should know better. Add up the years of experience that Graham
Cross and David Leverton of Eyevine, J.P. Pappis of Polaris, the VII
photographers, Jody Potter of J Group Photo, Mimi Brown of Creative
Alliance and Marcel Saba of Redux have between them and you start to
realize that there must be some good reason for this all happening now.
For two of these endeavors there is a shared genealogy: Jody Potter
worked for Saba for five years, and Marcel Saba started that agency
and subsequently sold it to Corbis. However, both are taking a markedly
different approach to their new businesses.

Jody started J Group Photo last September with the
idea of representing a small group of diverse photographers in both
the editorial and commercial markets. The ideal number of photographers
for her is nine, and she already has some heavy names on the roster,
such as Joyce Tennyson, Nathaniel Welch and Maggie Steber. Her decision
to only represent and not offer resale was based on the fact that she
could start with very little capital and very low overheads. She only
has two people working with her, one of whom cold-calls advertising
agencies, which is my idea of the second worst job in the world, right
behind being Demi Moore’s personal assistant. Representation also
means not having to have a deep web presence, and hauling around those
portfolios probably saves on health club memberships as well. In the
digital age being a rep is still an old-fashioned shoe leather activity,
with the emphasis on personal service, and Jody doesn’t see that
changing any time soon. Her only nod to the digital revolution is that
she will refer requests to the photographers’ own web sites, and
considers it foolish for any photographer to be without one. Where she
falls in line with all the other new undertakings is that she sees holes
in the services offered by the larger agencies, and these are where
the opportunities lie. “The buyouts have settled, and there’s
all these photographers who have nowhere to go that are not happy with
Corbis and Getty and are looking for solutions.” She also feels
that on the client side there are people who don’t like working
with the bigger agencies. It’s also interesting to her that all
of the new agencies are doing something a little different to each other.

Certainly Marcel’s new company is different to
Jody’s, but on the surface very similar to his previous one. It
is in the differences from Saba where the interest lies. He will represent
and resell the work of a smaller group of photographers, down to twenty
from seventy five, but will take work from others whom he does not represent
on a full time basis. He admits to having been very hard-ass against
this with Saba, and thinks that the times now call for a more open and
flexible approach. This way of working is made easier by the absence
of any formal contractual arrangements between him and any of the photographers
whose work he licenses. “I really don’t believe in [contracts]”
he says, “I’m only 42 but I have a lot of old fashioned
in me still. It’s a handshake. It’ll either work or it doesn’t
work.” Like Jody he sees the need to keep overheads low, and so
Redux will be one hundred percent digital, which doesn’t mean
that the photographers will have to shoot digitally, but that’s
the only way that their work will be sold. In this Marcel is right in
line with most of the other start-ups, and the reason he says is the
significant reduction in the cost of technology over the last couple
of years. What used to be an investment of four to five hundred thousand
dollars can now be purchased for around twenty to thirty thousand. Redux
will be on the French system Orphea, the same one used by Gamma and
Sipa. Because he is in partnership with Mimi Brown’s Creative
Alliance the costs will be further reduced through the sharing of scanning
and other technology costs.

Marcel echoes Jody in the opportunities that he sees
in both sides of the market. From the photographers’ point of
view he felt that “there was room for somebody to be an alternative,
to be another place, to be another option for photographers to go to.
There is a shrinking of options for photographers.” He also believes
that the clients are looking for a more personal service. “It
was fun two years ago to do your own research. Now they want someone
to go and do it for them.” The agency is off to a good start with
the photographers that they represent. Mark Peterson, Nina Berman, Liz
Gilbert, Jeffrey Salter, David Butow and London based Seamus Murphy
will provide a significant archive base as well as being in demand for
the assignment work that Marcel insists is still out there. His desire
to only take on twenty full time photographers reflects the amount of
attention that he feels each one needs. “Repping is very time
consuming. You really need to spend time working with the photographers
and target their work to certain magazines. It takes a lot of time and
energy. I don’t want to have five reps right now.” Another
thing that he doesn’t want to have is any involvement with the
daily news business. What he will be offering his clients is high quality
editorial features and portraiture; what he will offer the photographers
is a seventy/thirty split on assignments and fifty/fifty on resale.
The agency will also be involved in co-production.

Marcel sums up his belief that this model will work
in the following terms:
“I think that three or four years ago there was an idea that the
independent agency wasn’t going to stay alive because the digital
age had come upon us. We couldn’t invest in technology; we didn’t
understand it. Corbis and Getty understood it, and more power to them
back then. I think that now we do understand what digital technology
is and we can provide it for the photographers and for clients, and
that we can still provide the intimate service that the photographers
need and that some clients need. We can do it now; we understand technology,
we embrace it and we’re going to deal with it. Corbis and Getty
cannot be the only answer for every client out there.”

Whatever else C&G did, I think that they will prove
to have been beneficial to photography in the long run. They showed
us that digital technology is an ideal system for marketing photography;
they forced us to look at the business practices of our craft, and however
much you may hate the terminology that they used, and however little
you feel like a content provider, if their MBAs have instilled in Marcel,
Jody, Mimi, et al a discipline to run their businesses tightly and efficiently,
not only will it be good for the photographers that they represent,
it will also provide a powerful alternative to C&G themselves. Because
Marcel is right when he says that this business needs other answers.
If the dominance of the corporations is not effectively challenged,
and if the photographers feel that they have no other options, it will
inevitably lead to an homogenization of photography, especially in the
editorial market. Those quirky unconventional photographers that we
all applaud will be pushed further towards the margins, both stylistically
and financially. The health of the business depends on such diversity,
and Jonathon, Mark, Steve and Tony should be rooting for the success
of Marcel and Jody along with the rest of us.

By the way, for those of you who didn’t
have either the benefit of a classical education or a good dictionary,
Redux means brought back or returned, and comes from the Latin for lead
again. It is also the trademark for a drug called dexfenfluramine hydrochloride
that is used in the management of obesity. I wonder if Marcel knew that
when he named the agency.